Research groups

Research centres, institutes and units housed within or closely associated with the School, which include the Australian Centre and the Research Unit in Public Cultures.

There are many different research partnerships, collaborations and affiliations throughout the nine different study areas within the School. For more information on programs please visit the Research collaborators web page.

Current groups

Australian Centre

Based in the School of Culture and Communication, with Professor Ken Gelder and Associate Professor Denise Varney as its co-directors, the re-housed Australian Centre develops innovative research projects in the Australian arts and humanities across a range of disciplines, including Art History, Theatre Studies, Literary Studies, Cultural Studies, Media and Communication, Cinema Studies, Indigenous Studies and Creative Writing.

Centre for Advancing Journalism

The Centre advances journalism through innovation in teaching, experimentation and engagement. It seeks power in the new tools for informing and being informed and is a hub of thinking, conversation and creativity about the contemporary and future state of journalism.

Research Unit in Public Cultures

The Research Unit in Public Cultures plays a key role in facilitating scholarship, enhancing research opportunities and enabling collaborations between creative industries, cultural institutions, research institutions, academic research centres and public communities. Professor Nikos Papastergiadis is the director. Others involved in the unit's establishment included Professor Audrey Yue (honorary) and Professor Scott McQuire. The research focus is on transformations in public culture, both within Australia and internationally.

Asian Cultural Research Network (ACRN)

A three-year project funded by The University of Melbourne's International Research and Research Training Fund, 2015 - 2018. Led by Assoc. Professor Fran Martin, School of Culture and Communication, Faculty of Arts. The project's goal is to develop an international research network to collaboratively research the cultural effects of the intensified mobility of both media and people between Asia and Australia as a result of globalisation in our region.

Digital Humanities Incubator

The Digital Humanities Incubator was constituted as an open research network that aimed to develop expertise and knowledge, through dialogue, on Digital Humanities within the School of Culture and Communication.

Human Rights and Animal Ethics Research Network

The Human Rights and Animal Ethics (HRAE) Research Network is committed to adopting a leadership and research role in the new global field of Human/Animal Studies (HAS). Professor Barbara Creed of the School of Culture and Communication is the coordinator and other School staff involved include: Professor Deirdre Coleman, Professor Jeanette Hoorn, Dr Nicholas Chare, and Dr Odette Kelada. Central to the Network’s research goals is the belief that the oppression of both humans and other animals is intimately connected and must be addressed jointly in the global struggle for social justice for human and other animals. HRAE conducts research into the educational, legal, social and cultural transformations taking place globally in response to the most recent scientific and ecological findings concerning human/animal studies. Hence HRAE’s research trajectory is interdisciplinary with a focus on legal studies, politics, philosophy, gender studies, cultural studies, science and the arts.

Visual Cultures Resource Centre

The Visual Cultures Resource Centre (VCRC) is unique within The University of Melbourne. First established in 1947 by Professor Joseph Burke, the image collection now comprises over 250,000 slides and photographs, 85,000 digitised records and a film collection of over 1,000 titles. There are also 7,000 image related books and periodicals, alongside the School's thesis collection and associated multimedia. The Centre acts as visual resources laboratory for teaching, learning and research in the School of Culture and Communication. It is a non-lending, research only library, with dedicated viewing spaces for film and professional editing suites.